Home Archives for Maria Rickert Hong
July 7, 2014

Paleo Hummus

Paleo Hummus Try this garlicky Paleo hummus as an appetizer, side dish or even as a dressing.

Chickpeas and other legumes are not legal in the Paleo diet, but that doesn’t mean you need to give up having hummus.

I’ve substituted pine nuts and zucchini for chickpeas, so you get an extra serving of vegetables as a bonus!

Serves:  4

Prep time:  5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup pine nuts (soaked overnight and drained)
  • 1/3 cup tahini
  • 1 medium zucchini
  • 1 large lemon (freshly squeezed)
  • 1 clove garlic (minced)
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

See Also

Dairy-Free Recipes

Egg-Free Recipes

Gluten-Free Recipes

Sign up for my best gluten-free, dairy-free recipes below:

Filed Under: APPETIZERS, RECIPES, SAUCES
June 4, 2014

Recovery from Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Other Chronic Illnesses

Recovery from Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Other Chronic IllnessesI want to let you know what the Documenting Hope Project means to me:  hope.

By making this film in which we will document the potential recovery of 14 children from autism, ADHD, asthma, atopic dermatitis, mood disorders, juvenile RA and type 2 diabetes, I believe people will come to know what I do:  that recovery is possible.

If you know that recovery is possible, then you have hope.

In this film, we’ll be rigorously documenting the therapies, lab work, diets, healing modalities and biomedical approaches that are used in each child’s healing protocol.

I wish something like this had been around when my boys were younger.  Back then, it was enough for me to figure out finally that they had Sensory Processing Disorder, which I call “almost autism”.

It took loads of research on my end to understand that their developmental delays, hypotonia, asthma, allergies, eczema, failure to thrive, projectile vomiting and acid reflux were all related.

It took even more researching and networking to discover that recovery from autism is possible.  If kids can be recovered from autism, and Sensory Processing Disorder is like a subset of autism, then my boys could be recovered from SPD.

I discovered a hidden world of what’s called the “biomedical” approach to healing, which is what functional medicine is:  Getting to the root cause of a symptom, illness or disorder.

The problem was, and is, that most doctors just don’t know about this type of approach.  Thankfully, functional medicine doctors like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Susan Blum and Dr. Frank Lipman are showing us that food is medicine and that toxicity, gut dysbiosis, hormonal imbalances and nutritional deficiencies are the ultimate causes of just about any kind of chronic disease or disorder.

Filed Under: ADHD, ANXIETY, ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, BIPOLAR DISORDER, DEPRESSION, ECZEMA, HEALTH TOPICS, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, OTHER DISEASES, RECOVERY STORIES, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, TYPE 2 DIABETES Tagged:
May 18, 2014

Gumbo Z’herbes

Gumbo Z’herbes I make gumbo z’herbes when I’m craving tons of leafy green vegetables because it’s a delicious way to get so many in!

Substitute other greens for ones you can’t find in your area.

Serves:  12

Prep time:  1 hour

Cook time:  1 hour

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 lb sausage (small dice)
  • 1/2 cup ghee or unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup sorghum flour
  • 1-1/2 cup yellow onion (diced)
  • 1 cup celery (finely diced)
  • 2 tablespoons ghee
  • 2 tablespoons garlic (finely minced)
  • 1/2 head green cabbage (roughly chopped)
  • 1 bunch collard greens (roughly chopped)
  • 1 bunch mustard greens (roughly chopped)
  • 1 bunch turnip greens (roughly chopped)
  • 2 bunches carrot greens (roughly chopped)
  • 1 bunch kale (roughly chopped)
  • 6 cups spinach (roughly chopped)
  • 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
  • 10 cups homemade chicken broth
  • 5 teaspoons fresh thyme
  • 5 teaspoons fresh tarragon (chopped)
  • 2 leaves bay
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon file’ powder
  • 2-1/2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 3-1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Step 1

Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and cook until browned. Use a slotted spoon to transfer sausage to a plate. In the same skillet over medium heat, combine 1/2 cup ghee and flour. Cook, whisking constantly, until you have a medium-brown roux. Stir in onions, celery and garlic and saute’ until tender, taking care not to burn rout. Set aside.

Step 2

Heat 2 tablespoons ghee in a soup pot over medium-low heat. Add cabbage and cook, stirring, until wilted. Stir in greens and parsley and cook until wilted. Add broth, bring to a simmer and cook until greens are completely tender, about 20 minutes.

Step 3

Use a ladle to remove about 4 cups of liquid from greens and add it to roux-vegetable mixture. Whisk to combine and return skillet to stove over medium heat. Warm briefly and then use a spatula to scrape mixture into greens. Return to a simmer and stir in reserved sausage, herbs, spices and simmer 20 minutes. Use an immersion blender or puree’ in batches in a countertop blender until smooth. Return soup to a simmer. In a small bowl, stir file’ with 2 tablespoons water until smooth and then add mixture to gumbo. Simmer 20 minutes more and then season to taste.

See Also

Dairy-Free Recipes

Egg-Free Recipes

Gluten-Free Recipes

Sign up for my best gluten-free, dairy-free recipes below:

Filed Under: LEAFY GREENS, RECIPES, SOUPS
April 18, 2014

Bone Broth Benefits

Bone Broth BenefitsBone broth is one of the staples in my kitchen, and I’m hoping to make it that way in yours, too.  Our ancestors knew about bone broth benefits, but we’ve gotten so out of touch with traditional foods that we don’t realize how healing something as simple as bone broth can be.

Minerals

“Good broth will resurrect the dead” is a South American proverb.  The reason is that animal bones are full of minerals.

So many people are mineral deficient these days, especially those who eat a Standard American Diet full of processed foods that are typically void of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

Minerals are necessary for proper functioning of our adrenal and thyroid glands, which help us to deal with stress.  If you’re mineral deficient, you’re likely having a hard time managing stress.

Gelatin

When broth cools, the gelatin in it congeals.  Gelatin contains the amino acids glycine and arginine.  Glycine is helpful for achieving deep, restful sleep as well as for making glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant.  Arginine helps heal coronary blood vessels, keeps the plaque off of arteries and minimizes clotting.

Gelatin also helps heal the lining of the colon, and is especially helpful for anyone with digestive issues.  It’s great for building up hair and nails and because it contains collagen, it’s great for keeping your skin from sagging.

Gelatin has been found to increase cartilage in the joints, so it’s helpful for someone with arthritis.  Not only that, but gelatin is anti-inflammatory, so it can help reduce the pain of arthritis, as well as that of other conditions.

Deep, Hearty Richness

Bone broth is the magic ingredient I use to give my home-cooked meals a satisfying and rich flavor.  Anyone that’s eaten my food knows that it has a deep, hearty richness that comes from my homemade bone broths.

You can’t buy this flavor from a package in a store or even find it in most restaurants, as they use factory-made bases containing MSG or other free-glutamate “foods”.  You really need to make it yourself to taste the difference.  I use it for reconstituting grains and legumes, for sauteing and braising meats and vegetables and for the base for sauces and soups.

Be sure to use bones from pasture-raised or grass-fed land animals or from wild-caught (not farm-raised) fish.  When I buy meat, I buy it with the bone in and skin on.  Fat from the skin is full of fat-soluble vitamins and gives dishes another depth of flavor that’s impossible to duplicate with store- or restaurant-bought food.

I save the bones and store them in the freezer until I have enough to make a batch of bone broth in my slow cooker.

Here are some easy recipes for you to incorporate into your daily routine so that you, too, can realize bone broth benefits.

I wrote this blog post for Dr. Henri Roca, a functional-medicine MD.

 

Filed Under: ADRENAL FATIGUE, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, GENERAL, HEALTH TOPICS, STRESS
April 7, 2014

Book Review: The Diet Cure

Now, you might think it strange that I’m writing a book review for “The Diet Cure” by Julia Ross.  While I am a health coach, I don’t specialize in weight loss.  Instead, I specialize in helping people recover from symptoms of chronic neurological and/or autoimmune issues like autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma, SPD, lupus, fibromyalgia, Lyme and more.

But I don’t like throwing the baby out with the bath water, so I read the book to see what’s in it for my clients.  There’s a lot!

In the book, Ms. Ross teaches us about adrenal, thyroid, yeast-overgrowth, nutritional deficiencies, fatty-acid deficiency, food sensitivities and blood-sugar issues, which are all common in my clients (both the children and their mothers) and how many of these issues can be controlled with diet (food choices) as well as amino acid therapy.

She recommends a whole-foods diet for all of these issues, as well as an Atkins-ish diet especially for those with blood sugar issues. It’s about the elimination of sugar with an emphasis on protein and fats to keep you full.  For anyone that’s ever done the Atkins diet, you know that one piece of bread will send you into a carb-lover’s binge-fest.

Ms. Ross provides us with the missing links for why the Atkins diet is not successful in the long run:

  • “Dr. Atkins did not know that carbs could be more addictive than cocaine.”
  • “Dr. Atkins specifically did not recognize the addictive power of grains, particularly wheat, for many people.”

The key to overcoming carb and sugar addiction is the addition of the amino acids that Ms. Ross recommends.

The book goes step-by-step into explaining how the factors I mentioned above as well as depleted brain chemistry and malnutrition from chronic dieting make it almost impossible to stay at a healthy weight.  Ms. Ross also shows us how to correct these imbalances.

Given that Ms. Ross has headed up the Recovery Systems Clinic for many years, she has dealt with the full gamut of different types of addiction (drug, alcohol and food).  She writes that the reason her clinic is so successful is because of the use of amino acid therapy to correct these biochemical imbalances in the brain and elsewhere.  It’s not willpower; it’s biochemistry.

When I read this book, I took a step back and looked at it from my perspective of not only a health coach but also the media director and a board member of Epidemic Answers, a non-profit that lets parents know that recovery is possible from autism, ADHD, SPD, allergies, asthma, autoimmune and more.

We let parents know WHY there is such an epidemic of children’s chronic illnesses:  it’s a perfect storm of the Standard American diet that is nutritionally deficient, the overuse of antibiotics, toxins in our environment, stressful lifestyles and gut dysbiosis (an imbalance of good vs. bad gut flora).

But when I read this book, I thought, “Huh.  All those women that have been on nutritionally deficient diets for years since at least the 1970’s are having kids, and those kids are being born with nutritional deficiencies that are compounded by gut dysbiosis, toxicity and stress.  No wonder we’re seeing such epidemics of autism, ADHD, allergies and more.”

Moms being on nutritionally deficient diets isn’t the only reason for this epidemic, but it certainly plays a key, overlooked role.

I’ll be hosting Ms. Ross on my upcoming webinar on April 23, 2014 at 1:00pm ET.  We’ll be discussing these imbalances and how to correct them with amino acids and diet, and you can sign up for your chance to ask questions here.

 

Filed Under: ADHD, ADRENAL FATIGUE, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, BOOK REVIEWS, CANDIDA, DIGESTIVE ISSUES, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, GENERAL, GLUTEN SENSITIVITY, GUT DYSBIOSIS, HEALING FATS, HEALTH TOPICS, LEAKY GUT, LYME DISEASE, LYME DISEASE, MEDIA, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES, SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER, STANDARD AMERICAN DIET (SAD), TOXINS, YEAST INFECTIONS Tagged: , , ,
April 1, 2014

Diet Soda and Aspartame

diet sodaI saw another pleasant surprise in today’s Wall Street Journal:  sales of diet sodas fell for the ninth straight year because more consumers are increasingly becoming wary of aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in diet sodas “despite decades of studies by the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies”.

Some consumers are finally catching on to the fact that just because the FDA says it’s safe, doesn’t mean it really is.  Perhaps they understand that the fox is guarding the henhouse and that these agencies often don’t look out for our best interests, as we would expect that they do.

Diet Soda and Aspartame

Aspartame, a genetically modified ingredient used as an artificial sweetener in diet sodas, converts to formaldehyde in the body and has been linked to migraines, fibromyalgia and even seizures. Formaldehyde is a carcinogen that’s used to embalm corpses. Wanna become one faster? Drink diet soda.

Recent studies have shown that people who drink diet soda typically fail to lose weight or worse, gain even more weight, because their metabolisms are tricked into storing fat by the sweet taste of aspartame.  It’s not just a “calories in, calories out” equation because the biochemical reaction of our brain reacting to the sweet taste isn’t accounted for in the equation.

Don’t think you’re off the hook if you’re drinking regular, sugar-laden soda.  Honestly, it’s a tough call as to which one is worse, but you can read more about my thoughts about it in the Dangers of Drinking Soda.

Filed Under: AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, FIBROMYALGIA, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, HEALTH TOPICS, STANDARD AMERICAN DIET (SAD)
March 19, 2014

Food as Medicine

Food As MedicineI was pleasantly surprised to see an article in the Wall Street Journal:  “A Delicious Prescription:  Chefs and Doctors Are Teaming Up to Create Health Food You Might Actually Crave.”

The article talked about how famous functional-medicine doctors like Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Frank Lipman are teaming up with famous chefs such as David Bouley and Seamus Mullen to show that, as Ann Wigmore said, “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison”, meaning that we should look at food as medicine.

I’m hoping that this isn’t just a fad, but that doctors are recognizing what traditional medicines from around the world have long known about the healing properties of food.

Doctors, you see, typically don’t learn about nutrition in medical school, and if they do, it’s usually about macro nutrition things like calories, carbohydrates and maybe vitamins.

In my experience, mainstream doctors have pooh-poohed the benefits of removing certain problem foods and/or the addition of health-promoting foods.

In fact, one of our ex-pediatricians advised me to take my older son to McDonald’s and give him Pediasure when he was finally diagnosed as failure to thrive, as if that would solve his problem.  It didn’t.  There was way more to the story than that, and giving my son non-nutritious, toxin-laden food was not the answer.

Fortunately for us, unfortunately for them, some of these famous doctors like Dr. Hyman and Dr. Susan Blum have had their own health crises, and they realized that food was a large part of their own recovery journeys.  In fact, Dr. Blum has a state-of-the-art kitchen at her office, where a staff chef teaches about cooking for health.  Let’s hope more mainstream doctors take a cue from them and decide to write prescriptions for more fruits and vegetables.

 

Filed Under: FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, RECOVERY STORIES, STANDARD AMERICAN DIET (SAD) Tagged: , ,
March 4, 2014

The New Nutrition Label

The New Nutrition LabelThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just announced proposed changes to the nutrition label.  Overall, I think these changes might make a positive and meaningful difference to our country’s health, at least to those who pay attention to food labels.  Here’s a breakdown of what I think are the positive changes:

  • More accurate serving size.  This is the big winner here because it reflects what people currently eat in one sitting.  Most people don’t carefully measure out ½ cup of ice cream for a serving; they eat half the pint instead, so the new label will reflect that reality.
  • Big emphasis on “Total Calories”.  This will be in a much-larger font size so that it really grabs your attention.  It’s kind of like the angel on your shoulder saying, “Do you REALLY want to eat that many calories?”
  • The addition of “Added Sugars” to the label.  Now people will know exactly how much sugar that food manufacturers have been adding to our food.  The problem with our misguided focus on eating low-fat foods is that it comes with the added cost of nasty chemicals to achieve the same “mouth-feel” as well as added sugar.  Fat and sugar both make food taste better.  If you’re taking out one (fat), you’re likely replacing it with more of the other (sugar).Rhetorical question:  Is it coincidental that at the same time we’ve been eating low-fat foods (remember, saturated fats were supposed to have been causing cardiovascular disease), there has been a skyrocketing epidemic of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity?  I think not!  It’s the sugar, folks!  And many times, it’s not listed as “sugar” on the ingredient label, so it can be tricky to figure out just where those calories are coming from.
  • Elimination of “Calories from Fat”.  Unfortunately, we’ve become fat-phobic in this country, as I explained above.  I wish we could become sugar-phobic instead, but sugar causes a dopamine rush, meaning that eating it is addictive and makes you (temporarily) feel good, so that’s probably not going to happen!
  • The addition of “Vitamin D” RDA percentage.  This country is in the midst of a vitamin-D epidemic deficiency, and it’s a factor that plays a large part in the epidemics of autism, allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, so having people pay attention to vitamin-D rich foods is a plus.  I’m betting, however, that most of them will be supplemented with synthetic vitamin D (vitamin D2) instead of the natural form (vitamin D3), so this is going to create another game for food manufacturers:  they will probably just add a lot of synthetic vitamin D so they can claim that it’s “rich in vitamin D”.
  • The addition of “Potassium” RDA percentage.  Potassium lowers blood pressure, so it’s a good idea to put this on the label, especially since so many people (young ones, too!) have hypertension these days.

The problem is that some people just don’t pay attention to food labels and portion sizes.  They’re going to eat whatever portion is set in front of them, which is why ex-mayor Bloomberg of New York tried to tax soft drinks over 8 ounces – do we really need to drink a Big Gulp?  The documentary “Super Size Me” did a great job of showing us how this kind of portion creep is making us fatter.

Nutrition-label improvements are mostly a moot point for me, personally, as I don’t buy very many foods that come with a food label on them.  I recommend you do the same.

This is a guest-blog post I wrote for Dr. Henri Roca, MD.

Filed Under: ALLERGIES, ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, GUEST BLOGS, HEALTH TOPICS, MEDIA, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, OTHER DISEASES, TYPE 2 DIABETES
March 2, 2014

Inflammation

What’s so important about inflammation?

Discover 12 Powerful Ways to Reduce Inflammation - small3Inflammation causes pain, swelling, heat, redness and loss of function. Left untreated, it can lead to bodily tissue destruction, fibrosis and necrosis. Remember, pain is a signal that something’s wrong.

Who has inflammation?

Inflammation is a root cause of many chronic illnesses such as autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma, eczema, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Help!  How do I reduce it?

Sign up for this free report!  In it, I’ll show you many simple things you can do with the foods that you’re eating to reduce inflammation.  And when that happens, you may not have as much pain, stiffness and swelling.

 

Filed Under: ADHD, ALLERGIES, ALZHEIMER'S, ANXIETY, ARTHRITIS, ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, BIPOLAR DISORDER, CANCER, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, DEPRESSION, DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS, DIGESTIVE ISSUES, ECZEMA, FIBROMYALGIA, GENERAL, HEALTH TOPICS, INFLAMMATION, LEARNING DISABILITIES, LYME DISEASE, LYME DISEASE, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, OCD, OTHER DISEASES, PANDAS, PARKINSON'S, RETAINED REFLEXES, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, SCHIZOPHRENIA, SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER, TYPE 1 DIABETES, TYPE 2 DIABETES Tagged:
February 10, 2014

Garlicky Greens

Garlicky GreensWith this garlicky greens recipe, you can easily cook any kind of leafy green vegetable from kale to swiss chard simply and deliciously!

Serves:  4

Prep time:  10 minutes

Cook time:  5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch leafy green vegetables
  • 1 head garlic (minced. I like a LOT of garlic! You don’t have to use this much if you don’t want to.)
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Step 1

After washing vegetables, remove stem from leaf, chop and set aside.

Step 2

If you have collard greens or kale, you will need to blanch the leaves in a pot of boiling water for a few seconds until they turn a bright green. Once they do, shock them by placing in ice water to stop them from cooking further. Chop to desired thickness.

Step 3

Heat oil in large saute pan over medium low. Saute garlic for a minute, then add in chopped stems and cook for a few minutes, until soft.

Step 4

For kale or collard greens, add leaves to garlic and stems. Mix thoroughly and remove from heat.

Step 5

For any other type of green (spinach, chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, carrot greens, beet greens, dandelion greens, etc.), shred and place in pan on top of garlic. Keep turning over until all leaves are wilted. Remove from pan and chop to desired thickness.

See Also

Dairy-Free Recipes

Egg-Free Recipes

Gluten-Free Recipes

Sign up for my best gluten-free, dairy-free recipes below:

Filed Under: LEAFY GREENS, RECIPES
« Previous Page
Next Page »